Krazy Kraut

High demand fermented vegetable and spice combinations.

Andy Reed started home gardening, farming, and fermenting from an early age. A Columbus, Ohio native, Andy learned from his grandfather, Doyle Boyce Reed, the many benefits of fermented vegetables and medicinal spices.

Today, Andy’s company Krazy Kraut has exploded far beyond his family garden in Columbus. Krazy Kraut is available throughout Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, DC, New Jersey, Michigan, Virginia, and West Virginia. All told, you can find Krazy Kraut in over 160 retail locations including Whole Foods and Kroger.

Krazy Kraut provides five varieties of certified-organiclive culture probiotic fermented vegetable and spice combinations. These healthy, delicious, and unique recipes are still made from locally-sourced certified-organic produce to promote and support small family farms and food security.

To learn more about our company, our founder, and where we’re going next, read on!

Our mission at Krazy Kraut is to create the highest quality healthy probiotic fermented vegetable and spice combinations, and do so in a way that supports Ohio certified-organic small family farms.

We have partnered with a co-operative group of Ohio organic farmers and are one of the largest buyers of organic produce in the state. We are also working with the city of Columbus to build our new kitchen in a depressed area of the city in order to boost economic and community development.

In recent years, there has been a huge shift towards organic foods and sustainable farming. A large section of consumers are also looking for organic raw ferments, but very few companies make these products in an organically-certified way. Krazy Kraut is perfect not only for the environmentally aware shopper, but also for people who have digestion issues and could benefit from probiotics.

One pint of mature sauerkraut has over one trillion probiotics — that’s equivalent to 12 bottles of most probiotic capsules!

Numerous studies have confirmed that fermented cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, brussels sprouts, etc.) have anti-cancer properties — more so that found naturally in these vegetables.

Additionally, lactic-acid fermented products that are unpasteurized, such as raw sauerkraut, aid digestive processes, increase vitamin B production, increase cell metabolism, and act as a detoxifier. Cancer specialist Nicholas Gonzales and other researchers have found that aiding digestion with digestive enzymes and betaine-hydrochloric acid (HCL) is essential in treating and preventing cancer.

No matter how big we grow, maintaining a close-knit and loyal community is something we take great pride in. We provide educational classes focusing on how to make and ferment your kraut on your own, as well as cooking classes with information on how to get the most out of your krauts! We even have delicious recipes using our five products on our website.

How do we ferment our food? We use the ancient pre-refrigeration food preservation technique called brine lacto-fermentation that creates probiotic-rich fermented food with a pickley, vinegary, krauty flavor. The result: 5 delicious varieties that turn any sandwich into a gourmet meal, and also taste delicious on a salad or a topping to any vegetable or meat dish.

5 Krazy Kraut Varieties:

Time and time again, once people try Krazy Kraut, they’re hooked!

We’ve received a ton of amazing testimonials from people like Amber and Michelle.

Amber is a 32-year-old single mom who has had digestive issues for years and tried everything from doctors to probiotic capsules to get help. This is what she wrote on Facebook unprompted after trying Krazy Kraut:

Then there’s Michelle, a 33-year-old school teacher and mom who struggles every year trying to not get sick from her students. Here is her testimonial sent to Facebook:

Since our start in 2012, Krazy Kraut has been growing rapidly. We now we have exposure in 10 states and Washington, DC thanks to our two distributors Tiny Footprint Distribution and Frankferd Farms Foods. To help us grow even more, we recently signed with the national distributor DPI!

We are in 90% of the Whole Foods in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. 92 Kroger stores in Ohio, and 50 in Indiana begins in September of 2016. Currently in talks with Kroger Cincinnati and Kentucky Divisions.

Our customers LOVE our products — we are on target to sell well over 50,000 jars in 2016. Our biggest growth driver truly has been via word of mouth by ecstatic customers.

We currently sell to distributors who in turn sell to the retail stores. We fuel adoption by retail stores with an aggressive commitment to in-store demos. Every new store we sample immediately has strong sales and places re-orders.

In fall 2016, we will expand our distribution to high-end eateries and universities. They will feature our products and logos on the menu, thereby increasing brand recognition. We are also looking into selling online on Amazon.com or some other e-retailer.

Future ProductsWe plan to expand our product line to include other fermented foods with huge customer interest like tempeh and miso. There are no other companies doing this organically anywhere in our region.

Before that, however, we want to start harvesting the byproduct of our fennel to minimize waste and also retail it. This makes a live culture probiotic-rich drink known as Kvass.

Make sure to request access to the business plan tab of this profile for a deeper look into Krazy Kraut!

Andy is a microbiologist and acupuncturist who has been mentored and trained with many famous nutritionists such as Paul Pitchford (Healing with Whole Foods) and Gabriel Cousens (Spiritual Nutrition). Among other degrees, he obtained a Master’s of Acupuncture degree from the American Institute of Alternative Medicine and completed the Master Organic Gardener Year Program Certificate from Spring Meadow School of Organic Farming and Gardening.

Inspired by his late Grandpa Doyle Reed who taught him to make raw vegetable ferments on the organic family farm when he was only four years old, Andy first started selling Krazy Kraut at a small farmer’s market in Columbus, Ohio. Later in life, Andy studied microbiology and folk medicine and spent time working as a licensed acupuncturist specializing in oncology and Asian Healing Food Energetics. Working with an MD, they developed Krazy Kraut recipes as nutritional therapies that were shown to be helpful for prevention of cancer and promotion of detoxification via microbial bioremediation, thus mitigating side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. Andy’s years of farming and knowledge of spices propelled the business to be more than just about health, but about delicious food that all people would love.

Mike is a CFA and the managing principal of Cephas Capital Partners. He has been a money manager/wealth advisor for over 30 years, and is responsible for establishing relationships with distributors and stores to sell our product.